Ascent Trip Report

This is my second ADK report.On June 27, 1993 Don Shultz and I finally took our second ADK hike. We had been planning it for quite some time but family health problems, school schedules, (we are both Technology teachers in the Owego-Apalachin School District) and weather kept us from the peaks.We left Owego around 1:00PM on the 26th. And headed for a friends summerhouse near Indian Lake. M. L. Vianese (our friend, and fellow teacher) recently, in February, purchased a small piece of property that had been used by her family in years past for summer vacations. She had grown up knowing the people and the area and had long plans to become a permanent part of that community. We arrived at 6:00PM or so and toured the property, and house, ate sandwiches for dinner, and enjoyed some conversation. We left around 9:30 for the trailhead taking the route through Blue Mt, Tupper Lake, Saranac, and Placid. Rte 3 was under construction and terrible to travel it took us much longer to get to Keene than we had expected. When we got to the Garden parking area at the end of John Brook Rd. it was after 11:00. So we hit the sack, sleeping in the Aerostar Van for the second time. Our hike plan was to climb Porter and Cascade by starting at the Garden and ending at Rte 73. From there we would hitch back to the car. As it was we got up at sun-break and headed for breakfast on Sunday morning. Noonmark diner wasn’t open so we considered (since it was only 6:00AM) starting out early. It was a beautiful day so we changed our plans to hike the trail from the airport (better views were expected going over Blueberry Mt.). We went to the trailhead got prepared and at 6:30 decided it would be a mistake to start without breakfast. We went back to the Noonmark and at 6:45 they opened their doors. After breakfast we went back to the airport and began the hike at about 7:30AM.He views of Hurricane Mt. and Keene Valley were great. The trail was well marked and at times quite steep. About half way up Blueberry Mt. We came upon a large toad, I took it’s picture, first wildlife of the trip, not realizing we would hear and see several hundred of it’s relatives during the entire days journey. Just before the top of Blueberry, I was ahead of Don, I stepped off the marked trail to my left to take a picture of Giant Mt. and to orient my map, it was a 20 foot distance, but enough so Don did not see me and I did not realize he had passed me. I stepped back to the trail and sat down and waited. After about 10-15 minutes, water and grape break, I started getting worried about my partner. I backtracked about .2 miles and not finding him hoped that he had passed me and was waiting for me farther up the trail. It was 9:25AM when I knew we were separated.The steep climb after Blueberry was extra hard wondering where Don was, and I left notes along the trail just in case he was still behind me. The longer I hiked the surer I felt we would meet on the top of Porter. The trail did have some wet areas and occasionally a footprint would appear, that I thought could be his. We had not encountered other hikers. At 11:50AM I reached the summit of Porter, no Don, but; as I looked across to Cascade I could see an orange daypack on a rather tall person headed for the summit. I took a short break, left another note, just in case, and went on to Cascade. At the point where the Highway to Porter trail junction is, I met a couple, first people for today, that were able to describe a fellow having lunch on Cascade that sounded like it could be Don. They were correct and at 12:45PM Don and I, sat down to exchange stories.We decided that the hitch-hiking idea was not the best and since it was such a great day, clear, windy, temp around 65-70, we would go back over the trail but this time descend to the Garden and walk back to the airport. When we reached the junction to the ridge trail Don decided that the shortest route was more to his liking, he was tired and I was interested in accumulating some miles, he chose to go back over Blueberry Mt. I took the trail down to the Garden area. We met at the car; I arrived about 2 minutes after him, after having walked about 2.5 miles further on the road. In all I’m estimating that our complete routes were 11 miles for Don and 14 miles for me, which includes the road walk and the earlier backtracking. We were back at the van by 6:00PM, changed clothes then headed for home.We are both planning very busy summers so climbing is going to wait until we’re back at school. We’re hoping for one trip in September and another in early October, but plans are very easily changed.